Scene IV.

3. sore, an emphatic word meaning both sad and dreadful, from AngloSaxon sár, grievous, painful; connected with the German schwer. Compare Genesis 1. 10, a sore lamentation'; Psalm lxxi. 20, 'sore troubles.' As an adverb it is very common in our Bible. The Scotch sair is still used in much the same sense as sore' once was in England.

4. trifled, not used elsewhere in the same sense. It is however used transitively, but with a different meaning, in The Merchant of Venice, iv. I. 298: 'We trifle time.' Here the meaning is: This grievous night has made all former experiences seem trifles.

Ib. knowings. This word is not used as a plural elsewhere by Shakespeare, nor apparently in the concrete sense, as here, a piece of knowledge.' It means 'knowledge' or 'experience' in Cymbeline, ii. 3. 102:

'One of your great knowing.'

6. bis bloody stage. See note on i. 3. 128.

7. the travelling lamp. The first and second folios read 'travailing' It was corrected the third folio (1664). Modern usage has assigned a separate spelling to each signification of the word, which in Shakespeare's time was written indifferently either way, and used with a combination of both meanings. Here in the writer's thoughts' travailing' or 'travelling' meant 'painfully struggling on his way.' Of course the meanings were sometimes distinguished, as when the word was used of the pains of labour, or of a foreign tour. Compare All's Well that Ends Well, ii. 1. 167:

Ere twice in murk and occidental damp

Moist Hesperus hath quench'd his sleepy lamp.'

The author no doubt derived a hint from what Holinshed says of the phenomena which appeared after the murder of King Duff. See the passage at length in the Preface.

8. Is night triumphant in the deed of darkness that has been done, or is day ashamed to look upon it? 'Predominance' is an astrological term. See Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3. 138:

'And underwrite in an observing kind
His humorous predominance.'

And King Lear, i. 2. 134: 'Knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence.' Compare also Milton, Paradise Lost, viii. 160:

Whether the sun, predominant in heaven,

Rise on the earth, or earth rise on the sun.'

12. place is a technical term in falconry for the pitch attained by a falcon before swooping down on its prey. So Massinger, The Guardian, i. 1 : Then, for an evening flight,

A tiercel gentle, which I call, my masters,
As he were sent a messenger to the moon,

In such a place flies, as he seems to say,
See me, or see me not! the partridge sprung,
He makes his stoop.'

For towering,' see King John, v. 2. 149.

13. As the mousing owl' finds his ordinary prey on the ground, the marvel is the greater.

14. horses, pronounced as a monosyllable, as ‘targes,' Cymbeline, v. 5. 5: 'Stepp'd before targes of proof.'

And Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 6. 40. Though it is printed 'horses' in the folio, it may be that Shakespeare wrote 'horse,' for there is frequent confusion in the plurals of nouns ending in a sibilant. See, for instance, The Merchant of Venice, iv. I. 255: 'Are there balance here to weigh

The flesh ?'

And compare v. I. 25 of this play. So we have horse' for the genitive 'horse's,' King John, ii. 1. 289:

Saint George, that swinged the dragon, and e'er since

Sits on his horse back at mine hostess' door.'

15. minions of their race, of all the breed of horses man's special darlings. Theobald read the race,' interpreted by Steevens to mean the race-course. 16. Turn'd wild in nature, were changed in temper and disposition. It was not a passing fit of ill temper, which might be due to ordinary causes. 17. as, as if. See ii. 2. 27.

24. pretend, propose, intend. See note on ii. 3. 113. So prétendre is used still in French, without the implication of falsehood.

28. ravin up. We have ravin down' in Measure for Measure, i. 2. 133: Like rats that ravin down their proper bane.'

For ravin'd,' see iv. I. 24.

29. like, likely. See Julius Cæsar, i. 2. 175:
'Under these hard conditions as this time

Is like to lay upon us.'

31. Scone, in the neighbourhood of Perth. The stone seat, on which the ancient Kings of Scotland sate at their investiture, originally, it is said, brought from Iona, was carried by Edward the First to England, and is inclosed in the coronation-chair in Westminster Abbey.

33. Colme-kill. According to Holinshed the body was carried first to Elgin, afterwards to Colmekill or Iona. The natives still call their island Icolmkill, the cell of St. Columba.' Macbeth himself was, according to tradition, buried there also. The site of the burying-place of the kings of Scotland—a list which closes with Macbeth-is still pointed out in the churchyard south-west of the church.

34. storehouse, here used for sepulchre.

36. thither, i. e. to Scone. The verb of motion is frequently omitted in similar phrases, as in Richard II. i. 2. 73:

Desolate, desolate, will I hence and die.' 38. Lest. There is an ellipsis here, which is easily supplied by the sense of the preceding line,

May you see things well done there.'

For the metaphor, compare i. 3. 145.

40. benison, blessing. The word is benisson in French, contracted from benediction.' Compare King Lear, iv. 6. 229:

The bounty and the benison of heaven.'

The opposite word is 'malison,' not however found in Shakespeare.

ACT III.

Scene I.

4. stand, stay, continue. See Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1. 417: 'And the blots of Nature's hand

Shall not in their issue stand.'

7. shine. Because they prophesied to Macbeth the lustre with which he is now invested.

10. Sennet. Spelt in the folios 'senit.' It is also found variously written 'cynet,' 'signet,''signate,' and 'senate' (Webster, p. 6, ed. 1857). It is a technical term for a particular set of notes played by trumpets or cornets, and different from a flourish.' Trumpets sound a flourish and then a sennet' (Decker, Satiromastix); and 'The cornets sound a cynet' (Marston, Antonio's Revenge, ii. I. init.). The word does not occur in the text of Shakespeare, and its derivation is doubtful.

13. all-thing. So written in the first folio. The second has all-things'; the third and fourth all things.' All-thing' seems to be used as an adverb meaning in every way': compare something,' 'nothing.' In Robert of Gloucester, p. 69 (ed. Hearne), alle ping' appears to be used for 'altogether: As wommon dep hire child alle ping mest.' Again, in p. 48, where Hearne prints Ac po nolde not Cassibel, þat heo schulde allyng faile,' Lord Mostyn's MS. has alþynge,' meaning 'altogether.'

14. solemn, formal, official. See Titus Andronicus, ii. I. I12:

'My lord, a solemn hunting is in hand.'

15. Let. Rowe altered this to 'Lay,' and Monck Mason proposed "Set.' The phrase command upon me,' for 'lay your commands upon me,' does not seem unnatural, though we know of no other instance in which it is employed.

16. The antecedent to which' is the idea contained in the preceding clause. Which' is frequently used with the definite article.

21. still, always, constantly. See The Merchant of Venice, i. 1. 17; i. 1. 136; and The Tempest, i. 2. 229.

Ib. grave, well-weighed, weighty. So Pericles, v. I. 184:

Thou art a grave and noble counsellor,'

where 'grave' does not apply to the aspect or manner.

3. 20:

'With politic grave counsel.'

'Enrich'd

Ib. prosperous, followed by a prosperous issue.

So Richard III. ii.

22. we'll take to-morrow, we'll take to-morrow for our conversation; an ellipsis which we still use colloquially. Malone read 'talk' for‘take,' and Keightley take 't.'

25. go not my horse, if my horse go not. Compare Richard II. ii. 1. 300: 'Hold out my horse, and I will first be there.'

Ib. the better, the better, considering the distance he has to go. Stowe, in his Survey of London (ed. 1618, p. 145, misquoted by Malone), says of tilting at the quintain, hee that hit it full, if he rid not the faster, had a sound blow in his necke, with a bagge full of sand hanged on the other end;' where the meaning is, if he rid not the faster because he had hit it full,' &c.

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27. twain, Anglo-Saxon twegen, nom. and acc. masc. The fem. and neut. form is twa. 'Twain' is frequently used by Shakespeare and in the Authorized Version. See for example Richard II. i. I. 50, and St. Matthew v. 41. 29. are bestow'd, are settled, placed. Compare Othello, iii. 1. 57, and iii. 6. 24, of this play.

31. parricide, used in the sense of parricidium as well as parricida. The only other passage in Shakespeare in which it is found is King Lear, ii. 1. 48, where it means the latter.

33, 34. When, besides the question of Malcolm and Donalbain's intrigues, we shall have business of state requiring our joint attention.

33. cause, a subject of debate. In iv. 3. 196, the general cause' means the public interest,' and in Troilus and Cressida, v. 2. 143, it is used for dispute,' argument':

'O madness of discourse,

That cause sets up with and against itself!'

38. I do commend you to their backs is said jestingly, with an affectation of formality.

41, 42. The punctuation in the text was first given by Theobald, and doubtless rightly, for it is solitude which gives a zest to society, not the being master of one's time. Delius, however, keeps the punctuation of the folios, which put a comma after night,' and a colon after 'welcome.'

42. It may be doubted whether 'welcome' is here a substantive, or an adjective agreeing with 'society.' We have the former construction in Timon of Athens, i. 2. 135:

'Music, make their welcome.'

If we took the latter, sweeter' would be used for the adverb 'sweetlier,' more sweetly.

Ib. ourself. Macbeth uses the royal style, as in line 78 of this scene. 43. while then, till then. Compare Richard II. iv. 1. 269:

'Read o'er this paper while the glass doth come.'

So Whiles' in Twelfth Night, iv. 3. 29:

'He shall conceal it

Whiles you are willing it shall come to note.'

See also Richard II. i. 3. 122, and our note on the passage.

47, 48. To be thus is nothing; But to be safely thus. To reign merely is nothing; but to reign in safety [is the thing to be desired]. Mr. Staunton, however, puts only a comma after 'nothing,' and interprets, To be a king is nothing, unless to be safely one.'

49. royalty of nature, royal, or kingly, nature. So we say nobility of

nature.'

51. to, in addition to. See i. 6. 19.

55, 56. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 3. 19:

Thy demon, that 's thy spirit which keeps thee, is
Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable,

Where Cæsar's is not; but near him thy angel
Becomes a fear as being o'erpower'd.'

This is borrowed from North's Plutarch, Antonius (p. 926, lines 8-10, ed. 1631): For thy demon, said he, (that is to say, the good angell and spirit that keepeth thee) is afraid of his and being couragious and high when he

is alone, becommeth fearfull and timorous when he cometh neare vnto the other.'

'

For genius,' see Julius Cæsar, ii. 1. 65:

The genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council.'

62. with was used formerly of the agent, where now we should rather say 'by.' Compare Winter's Tale, v. 2.68: He was torn to pieces with a bear.' We confine 'with' to the instrument, and still say with a hand,' 'with a sword'; but not 'with a man,'' with a bear.' See also King John, ii. 1. 567: 'Rounded in the ear

With that same purpose-changer.'

64. filed, defiled. This form is not elsewhere used by Shakespeare. It is found however frequently in other authors, as, for instance, in Spenser, Fairy Queen, iii. 1. 62:

Compare also Holland's Pliny, xiv. c. 19: If the grapes have been filed by any ordure or dung falne from above thereupon.'

66. vessel, derived through old French vaissel, from the Latin vasculum, vascellum. Its use here was probably suggested by St. Paul's words, Romans ix. 22, 23.

67. Delius interprets 'eternal jewel' to mean eternal happiness. But does it not rather mean 'immortal soul,' which Macbeth has sold to the Evil One? For 'eternal' in this sense compare King John, iii. 4. 18:

'Holding the eternal spirit against her will

In the vile prison of afflicted breath.'

70. list, nowhere else used in the singular by Shakespeare except in the more general sense of 'boundary,' as Hamlet, iv. 5. 99:

6

The ocean overpeering of his list.'

For the space marked out for a combat he always uses 'lists.' 71. champion me, fight with me in single combat.

This seems to be the

only known passage in which the verb is used in this sense. Ib. to the utterance. Cotgrave has: Combatre à oultrance. To fight at sharpe, to fight it out, or to the vttermost; not to spare one another in fighting. Compare Cymbeline, iii. 1. 73:

'Behoves me keep at utterance,'

i. e. defend to the uttermost. So in Holland's Pliny, ii. 26: 'Germanicus Cæsar exhibited a shew of sword-fencers at utterance.'

Ib. The two murderers' here introduced are not assassins by profession, as is clear by what follows, but soldiers whose fortunes, according to Macbeth, have been ruined by Banquo's influence.

79. pass'd in probation with you, I proved to you in detail, point by point. The word 'passed' is used in the same sense as in the phrase 'pass in review.' For 'probation,' compare Measure for Measure, v. 1. 156:

'What he with his oath

And all probation will make up full clear.'

80. borne in band, kept up by promises, which, it is implied, were never realized. Compare Hamlet, ii. 2.67:

'Whereat grieved

That so his sickness, age, and impotence
Was falsely borne in hand.'